Google Algorithm Update Checker

Fast, easy and very precise check if your site hit by a Google Algorithm update (Panda, Penguin or other). We check your traffic against a calendar of Google Updates and tell if it's likely that you have been hit by a particular Google Algorithm change. To use this tool, you need to sign in to Analytics-Toolkit.com. Sign In or Free Trial.

Quickly Evaluate SEO Impact of Google Updates

In 2012 and 2013 alone Google rolled out over 60 major algorithm changes and data refreshes. Many of them affected a big percentage of websites. Our practice showed that many webmasters and even SEO specialists have trouble identifiyng whether an update has affected a website. We launched this tool to help you quickly estimate the likelyhood that you were hit by a particular algorithm change. This is vital information for any future SEO efforts.

Google Algorithm Update Checker - Video Transcript

In this video we present the Google Algorithm Update Checker tool from Analytics-Toolkit.com.

The Google Algorithm Update Checker helps SEO professionals to quickly check a site’s Google traffic against a calendar of known updates and to determine whether the site was penalized at one point or another. It’s very handy when evaluating a new prospective client’s site, for evaluating multiple sites quickly as well as for catching up on any SEO project.

The tool is much more than an overlay of a timeline on a traffic graph. It does deep statistical analysis of the traffic trends and tries really hard to eliminate any sources of traffic fluctuations that are not caused by Google Updates. Examples would be: seasonal trends, PR and advertising campaigns, technical issues with Google Analytics, and others. It also reports only statistically significant results, guaranteeing that you don’t fall prey to noisy data.

The job our tool does per update is equivalent to at least 10 minutes of hard work from an expert web analyst. So not only does it provide you with statistical know-how, but also saves you tremendous amounts of time that can be spent on other tasks.

Now: to show the tool in action. Begin by selecting the Google Analytics profile that contains the data for the website. It is preselected in case you used it in another tool from our toolkit. Then, select the year you want to analyze traffic for. Press “Check for Google Algorithm Penalties”.

The results will appear in seconds. It may take a bit longer for sites with a lot of traffic.

First, you see the results plotted on a Google organic traffic graph. The blue line is Google organic traffic. Grey vertical bars represent updates that had no effect on the site. Vertical bars in other colors as shown in the legend below represent updates with significant impact.

As we can see on the graph, this particular site has been hit by three updates. Hovering over the bars reveals additional information, like the date of the update, the percentage of lost or gained traffic and the tool’s estimation for the likelihood that there had been an impact.

Scrolling down reveals detailed information about the updates during the selected year, such as each update’s name and date and the difference in search traffic around that date. It is advisable that you consider the update’s description when coming to a conclusion about its impact.

You can also check the “detailed graph” link for a zoom-in that shows only the period right before and right after the update. Average Google organic visits are depicted as horizontal lines.

We hope you find this tool helpful in evaluating Google Algorithm Updates impact. Reach out and let us know if you have any suggestions or comments about this tool.

Tool Characteristics

AutomationPartial / Full

Time-Saving1000x

Unique ToolYes / No

API OnlyYes / No

Expertise LevelNovice / Experienced / Expert

How to use the Algo Update Checker?

Run the check and examine the penalty indications (if any). Read the relevant descriptions and try to determine how likely is it that your site was affected by the changes described. If it seems likely, investigate further and seek further confirmation. Try to rule out on-page or off-page changes happening about that time as reasons for the traffix flux. If no indications are shown, most likely you weren't affected by any known update.